The Confluence

So does the saying go “You have to be good to be lucky”, or is it the other way around ??

Well, doesn’t matter. Jason Spezza, who along with linemates Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley have been Penguin-killers over the years, got a fortunate bounce of the puck off Kris Letang’s skate for his 3rd goal of the game which turned out to be the eventual game-winner for the Senators, who held on to defeat the Penguins at Scotiabank Place, 3-2.

While I’m sure no one in the Vegas Gold and Black will use the term “tired”, it appeared to me that the entire Penguins squad, playing their third game in under 72 hours, was a step slow all game long. There were loads of errant passes by the offense, a lot of slow responses by the defense, and Pens’ goalie Dany Sabourin made some very questionable decisions.

“The Pittsburgh Penguins forward Tyler Kennedy will miss four to six weeks with a sprained knee, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero. Kennedy suffered the injury on December 3 against the New York Rangers and has been placed on injured reserve.”

Tough blow to an already banged-up Penguins roster. Chris Minard looked good in Kennedy’s place against Carolina, looks like he’ll get an extended look. The jury remains out on Janne Pesonen, he’s only getting token minutes from HCMT.

It figures. With Raleigh only 200 miles away from my humble abode, I’ve been able to attend Penguins games in Raleigh six times over the years. The Pens are 0-5-1 in those games. So it figures when I DON’T go, they play their best game in Raleigh in several years.

[By the way, the Pens are much more successful when I travel 200 miles north to DC, thanks Caps fans….]

It was refreshing for a change to have a quote/unquote easy win tonight at the expense of the Carolina Hurricanes and their old/new head coach, Paul Maurice.

Petr Sykora scored two goals for the 42nd time in his NHL career without scoring a hat trick, extending his own NHL record, and Sidney Crosby had four assists to pull within two points of teammate Evgeni Malkin for the NHL scoring lead as the Penguins cruised to 5-2 win over the Hurricanes in Raleigh tonight.

Have you caught the latest installment of the Sidney Crosby Show? The run of multipoint nights, the lifting of the injury-wracked Penguins, the on-ice act that also features the artistic stylings of sidekick Evgeni Malkin and his stick of fire? You don’t know what treats Sid the Kid will provide these days. Last week, he scored an empty net goal from his belly.

For all of Crosby’s statistical bounce—13 points in six games, 22 in his last 13—he is hardly to be evaluated by points alone. He may have risen to second in the NHL in scoring, but he is also second, to Magnificent Malkin, on his own team. What we are seeing now, as Crosby delights his homies in Pittsburgh, stuns the crowd in Hockeytown, incites the masses in New York City, is the Kid at 21. The man-boy is now officially a man, all grown up, not just by the measure of the nation’s bartenders, but in his dignity and his resolve.

The Things We Forget, Part 9: Sidney Crosby
The Kid lost his first Cup Finals. So did a guy named Gretzky.

Until 2008, Sidney Crosby had always been the future. But after he, Evgeni Malkin and the rest of the youthful Penguins—with the notable exception of 118-year-old Gary Roberts—reached the Stanley Cup Finals to face the Detroit Red Wings, Crosby became, even in defeat, something like the present. He found himself in a space he had never before occupied, one that sheltered him from questions about what would happen next. For seven blessed weeks, he didn’t have to think beyond now. “When you’re on a run like that, you don’t have time to think about what you’re doing,” Crosby said. “You’re in a bubble.”